Christian73 saidY'know, we could easily spend out time spamming the forum with cutsey anti-Republican/Conservative videos...

I would love to see what those look like. Well, probably more in line with Mainstream Working America.

Yes. Progressives are more in line with mainstream working America. Thanks for admitting it.

Progressives are more in line with Castro. I dont see that kind of thinking around America. You need to get out of Brooklyn and see what the real world is going through.

Listen. I'm really trying not to accuse you of being a sock account, but you're going to have to stop using every single meme that SouthBeach does.

And your statement about Castro only goes to show how little you know about progressives, socialism, communism, history, economics and, well, a lot of other things.

The Democrats want the same things as Cuba, free healthcare, free food, free shelter, free education, free transportation, government jobs and most of all what they call fairness in the tax system, aka ripping the tax payers off.

CHRISTOPHER34 saidThe Democrats want the same things as Cuba, free healthcare, free food, free shelter, free education, free transportation, government jobs and most of all what they call fairness in the tax system, aka ripping the tax payers off.

Wrong. No one wants "free" anything.

Progressives want a public option for healthcare similar to Medicare to be made available to all citizens. Medicare has overhead of 3% compared to 15-20% for most health insurance companies. Instead we pay exorbitant amounts for outcomes that are - on average - worse than most Western European Countries.

Free food? No clue what you're talking about there.

Free Shelter? Again. No clue.

In terms of education, K-12 public education has long been a standard of America's greatness. And, more so, it's not free. It's paid for via real estate taxes in most municipalities.

Free transportation? Again. No clue.

Government jobs? No clue.

Fairness in tax system. Yes. But it's the 99% who have been ripped off and we just want to equalize things.

Feel free to try and explain to us where you found these "tenets" of progressive politics.

CHRISTOPHER34 saidThe Democrats want the same things as Cuba, free healthcare, free food, free shelter, free education, free transportation, government jobs and most of all what they call fairness in the tax system, aka ripping the tax payers off.

Wrong. No one wants "free" anything.

Progressives want a public option for healthcare similar to Medicare to be made available to all citizens. Medicare has overhead of 3% compared to 15-20% for most health insurance companies. Instead we pay exorbitant amounts for outcomes that are - on average - worse than most Western European Countries.

Free food? No clue what you're talking about there.

Free Shelter? Again. No clue.

In terms of education, K-12 public education has long been a standard of America's greatness. And, more so, it's not free. It's paid for via real estate taxes in most municipalities.

Free transportation? Again. No clue.

Government jobs? No clue.

Fairness in tax system. Yes. But it's the 99% who have been ripped off and we just want to equalize things.

Feel free to try and explain to us where you found these "tenets" of progressive politics.

LOL, How have the 99% been ripped off?

I have a plan, how about the 50% that dont pay taxes, start contributing. That would a little more fair. Fairness would be everyone paying a flat tax. For example everyone pays 10% on their income, thats it, no more.

CHRISTOPHER34 saidThe Democrats want the same things as Cuba, free healthcare, free food, free shelter, free education, free transportation, government jobs and most of all what they call fairness in the tax system, aka ripping the tax payers off.

Wrong. No one wants "free" anything.

Progressives want a public option for healthcare similar to Medicare to be made available to all citizens. Medicare has overhead of 3% compared to 15-20% for most health insurance companies. Instead we pay exorbitant amounts for outcomes that are - on average - worse than most Western European Countries.

Free food? No clue what you're talking about there.

Free Shelter? Again. No clue.

In terms of education, K-12 public education has long been a standard of America's greatness. And, more so, it's not free. It's paid for via real estate taxes in most municipalities.

Free transportation? Again. No clue.

Government jobs? No clue.

Fairness in tax system. Yes. But it's the 99% who have been ripped off and we just want to equalize things.

Feel free to try and explain to us where you found these "tenets" of progressive politics.

LOL, How have the 99% been ripped off?

I have a plan, how about the 50% that dont pay taxes, start contributing. That would a little more fair. Fairness would be everyone paying a flat tax. For example everyone pays 10% on their income, thats it, no more.

The 99% have seen their income stagnate, their wealth decimated by the banks blowing up the economy, unions busted at the behest of corporate moguls, etc. etc.

CHRISTOPHER34 saidThe bottom 47% do not pay income tax and they need to start contributing. Everyone should pay their fair share. Shame on the politicians who give them a free ride.

Incorrect. The 47% who do not pay federal income tax are from across the income-earning spectrum, and 30% of them are comprised of seniors on Social Security, students in full-time college, people with disabilities, etc.

The remaining 70% do not pay because of the Bush recession which drove their wages down so far that on net they didn't owe federal income taxes.

Beyond that, payroll taxes, which are paid disproportionately by working class and poor people represented 36% of all federal income:

Further, "Over the 58 years preceding the Lesser Depression, the share of federal revenues that came from individual income taxes has remained fairly stable, fluctuating between 40 and 50 percent, and peaking just before George W. Bush slashed rates in 2001.

The rest has come from corporate income taxes, payroll taxes, and various other taxes. To a surprising extent, the story of the last six decades is one of a shrinking burden on big business, and a growing burden on workers — the bulk of the “47 percent”. Since 1950, regressive payroll taxes have grown to comprise over one-third of federal revenues — they used to comprise about one-tenth. For corporate income taxes, it’s just the opposite — what used to provide the Treasury over a quarter of its revenue now provides just over 10 percent.

Income taxes, both corporate and individual, provide “general revenue” — money that the government spends on most federal programs. Payroll taxes, by contrast, are dedicated to financing Medicare and Social Security, both of which have grown considerably as a share of national expenditures in past decades. Indeed, prior to 1965, there was no Medicare, and the payroll tax’s share of revenue has grown since to reflect that. But to a wage-earner’s annual bottom line, that makes no difference.

Separately, revenue as a percentage of GDP has fluctuated over the years, climbing steadily from 1950-2000, declining in 2001 after the Bush tax cuts, then bottoming out after the financial crisis and recession. The charts below predate the recession, and the numbers have probably shifted to reflect high unemployment, lower incomes, lower profits, and a temporary but fairly significant payroll tax cut. But “the burden” politicians describe is the whole pot of federal revenue, whatever its size. And the “47 percent” have born their fair share of it."

"In the plain words of Elizabeth Warren: "There is nobody in this country who got rich on his own -- nobody. You built a factory out there? Good for you. But I want to be clear. You moved your goods to market on the roads the rest of us paid for. You hired workers the rest of us paid to educate. You were safe in your factory because of police forces and fire forces that the rest of us paid for."

"All of that is true -- although I need to point out that in the past 34 years I paid plenty to support those services, too. But the real point is that in our rush to criticize around the edges, we forget how basic and essential most government services are, and how crippled we would be without them. While we can still find the rude DMV clerk or the teacher who shouldn't be teaching, the bigger story is that we find dedicated and hardworking teachers and public servants everywhere we look. And our state government functions -- imperfectly, yes, but it functions.

"I started my company when I was 23, and as the company grew, I literally did build a factory. So Warren seemed to be addressing me directly with these words, "Now look. You built a factory and it turned into something terrific, or a great idea. God bless! Keep a big hunk of it. But part of the underlying social contract is, you take a hunk of that and pay forward for the next kid who comes along."

"We hear a lot these days from people who call themselves "patriots" but whose core messages focus on reducing, if not eliminating, both government and taxes. But like it or not, a civil society demands real patriotism, and that is defined not just by freedom, but by responsibility, sacrifice -- and paying taxes, too."

"In the plain words of Elizabeth Warren: "There is nobody in this country who got rich on his own -- nobody. You built a factory out there? Good for you. But I want to be clear. You moved your goods to market on the roads the rest of us paid for. You hired workers the rest of us paid to educate. You were safe in your factory because of police forces and fire forces that the rest of us paid for."

"All of that is true -- although I need to point out that in the past 34 years I paid plenty to support those services, too. But the real point is that in our rush to criticize around the edges, we forget how basic and essential most government services are, and how crippled we would be without them. While we can still find the rude DMV clerk or the teacher who shouldn't be teaching, the bigger story is that we find dedicated and hardworking teachers and public servants everywhere we look. And our state government functions -- imperfectly, yes, but it functions.

"I started my company when I was 23, and as the company grew, I literally did build a factory. So Warren seemed to be addressing me directly with these words, "Now look. You built a factory and it turned into something terrific, or a great idea. God bless! Keep a big hunk of it. But part of the underlying social contract is, you take a hunk of that and pay forward for the next kid who comes along."

"We hear a lot these days from people who call themselves "patriots" but whose core messages focus on reducing, if not eliminating, both government and taxes. But like it or not, a civil society demands real patriotism, and that is defined not just by freedom, but by responsibility, sacrifice -- and paying taxes, too."